Review: Sacha Baron Cohen’s silly, scattershot ‘Borat 2’ takes aim at Trump, COVID

Sacha Baron Cohen reprises his infamous role as a silly Eastern European journalist in the satirical and savvy sequel ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.’ USA TODAY

Borat’s at it again, with a plot getting in the way of his latest politically charged cinematic shenanigans.

Fourteen years after the original “Borat” mockumentary, Sacha Baron Cohen reprises his most infamous role as a wildly uncouth reporter in the silly, scattershot sequel “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” (★★½ out of four; rated R; streaming Friday on Amazon Prime).

This time, Borat’s journey to America – secretly filmed during (and sending up) the pandemic – revolves around his teenage daughter, Tatur (a very game Maria Bakalova), but that narrative just serves as fleetingly funny, often momentum-killing filler between pranking unsuspecting participants, usually of the Republican persuasion. At least Cohen is aiming really high this time, right at folks who work in the White House.

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Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) goes undercover as “Country Steve” when crashing a March for Our Rights rally in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.”

 (Photo: AMAZON STUDIOS)

His high-profile targets reflect Borat’s important new assignment. After his 2006 mission to make a documentary about America turned his homeland into a global laughingstock, Borat was sentenced to a gulag. The sentence ends when he gets a new order from the Kazakhstan president, who wants to snuggle up to “McDonald” Trump.

To earn Trump’s respect, Borat is sent back to America to deliver a monkey (who’s somehow the country’s ministry of culture and also a porno star) to someone in Trump’s inner circle: Vice President Mike Pence.  

After Borat takes a boat to Galveston, Texas, he learns something bad happened to the monkey but discovers his daughter has stowed away, so he decides to gift Tatur to Pence. After Borat disrupts Pence’s real 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference speech and tries to “deliver” the teen while dressed up as Trump – let’s just say the VP isn’t amused in one of the movie’s funniest scenes – father and daughter end up on a road to connection, though it’s a rocky one as Tatur becomes empowered as a woman of the world and the exceptionally sexist Borat is left befuddled.

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Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) takes his teen daughter Tatur (Maria Bakalova) to a Georgia debutante ball in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.”

 (Photo: AMAZON STUDIOS)

There is an intriguing meta aspect to “Subsequent Moviefilm”: People recognize Cohen-as-Borat and it’s hilarious seeing random folks yelling, “High five!” at him or him finding a “Stupid Foreign Reporter” costume at a Halloween store. COVID-19 plays a key role as well: Pence’s speech mentions the golden age of only having 15 cases of coronavirus, and Borat ends up quarantining with some Trump supporters. 

It’s easy to wonder when watching Cohen, who garnered an Oscar screenplay nomination for the original “Borat,” what’s real and what’s not. Cohen probably didn’t really go into lockdown with guys who insist Hillary Clinton drinks the blood of children (“It’s been said,” one of them says), especially with cameras running. (Honestly, after one of these movies you just want to know how they pulled off the entire thing.) Thanks to Google, however, we know of some actual incidents that occur in the movie, including Cohen (as Borat as “Country Steve”) crashing a March for Our Rights rally and getting portions of the conservative crowd whooping by singing offensive lyrics about Barack Obama, Anthony Fauci and others.

Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) dresses up as Donald Trump and interrupts Mike Pence’s CPAC speech in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.”

 (Photo: AMAZON STUDIOS)

Cohen has a clear focus for his crassness, deploying his satirical weaponry on red-state conspiracy theories and showing Trump supporters wielding machine guns, Confederate flags and Nazi salutes. (There’s also a running joke with the Trumps depicted as an animated Disney-esque king and queen, and one scene takes a jab at the president’s, um, manhood.) Some of the partisan duping is rather ingenious, including one sequence where Tutar eats a plastic baby on a cupcake and to get it out of her stomach, she and her dad go to a pregnancy center and confuse a pro-life pastor.

Directed by Jason Woliner, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” features an unexpectedly strong ending that at least pays off some of the sweeter aspects of the family dynamic, plus wraps up on an activist note (“Now vote or you will be execute”). And while Cohen can be a great “serious” actor when he wants (see: “The Trial of the Chicago 7”), the absolute commitment to the over-the-top Borat persona continues to be admirable. 

If the mankini still fits, wear it.

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